Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

May I briefly add my warm regards to the member for Warringah, Tony Abbott, on his term as Prime Minister of this country. It was a very great pleasure to serve with him for all of his five years as Leader of the Liberal Party. He certainly had a vision for Australia. He had a particular interest in promoting infrastructure and wanted to be known as the infrastructure Prime Minister, and so it was perhaps easy to be minister for infrastructure when there was such a strong level of support from the Prime Minister. While his term as Prime Minister was relatively short, I was pleased that he did get to open one or two projects. I acknowledge that some of those projects were inherited from the previous government—because building big projects these days takes a long time—but so many new projects have been started, and they will be part of his legacy to his country.

I also want to acknowledge Margie Abbott. Lyn and I enjoy our relationship with the Abbotts as a couple and we appreciate the tremendous sacrifice that a family in this position makes. While Margie is not a particularly political person—I think she is happier doing other things—she was very supportive of Tony through all of that period.

In his relaxation time, Tony did the most extraordinary things, such as ride a bike faster than most people in this country and for longer than most people in this country. I suspect that the AFP might be relieved to have someone who is a bit slower runner—sorry, Malcolm!—and a bit slower bike rider—

See this speech in context